Riley Pictures 12.31.12

 Christmas Gift Exchange: I got tiger earmuffs and a tshirt that doesn't fit my MASSIVE shoulders. I gave E. Wilamas a disco ball and a beanie. His joy was full.

 Baptism!! YEAH! HOLLER! WOOHOO!

 It was a beautiful morning today...my comp thought it was freezing!

My family said only horses eat oats...They've never been to Thailand.
 

 

 My District Leader...yeah, he's Australian.

Just forward this one to National Geographic. Then deposit the fat check they give me in my account...

after you pay tithing on it of course.

Nongkhai 12.31.12

HELLO FAMILY THAT I LOVE...A LOT!

How is everything? What's the word? Thailand is still great, don't even worry. Talking to you on Christmas was great. You all look fabulous. Good, good, good. Yep.

Christmas over here was fun. I almost pulled a dad (aka started getting all emotional) while we were talking, but after that I was good. After skyping, we ate some KFC (oh baby.) then went and did a mini gift exchange at the tourist market. We set a 150 ß limit (about 5 bucks), drew names, kept them secret, then bought some classy gifts. It was pretty fun. We also bought a waffle maker for the house. It is supreme. It made me think of mom's signature pumpkin waffles. I thought about trying to reproduce them here...for about 2 seconds then decided it would be a disaster. But Christmas was good, I had a good time and didn't get homesick like I thought I might (prayers get answered).

Sister. Muay. Got. Baptized. Yes. Money. In. The. Bank. It was pretty golden. She is pretty golden. Thailand is pretty golden. The best part of it was when she bore her testimony, she thanked me for teaching her and helping her come closer to Christ. It was a good, warm and fuzzy moment. I love being an instrument in the Lord's hands.

This week I learned in Abraham. It was pretty epic. Abraham talks a lot about some pretty deep stuff, it blows my mind. What I liked most was reading about his desires (Abraham 1:2...I think). He desired for more righteousness, to keep the commandments and more knowledge. Some people see the commandments and keep them but think about how great life would be if they didn't have to keep them. They half desire to break them. But Abraham desires the exact opposite. He kept the commandments and desired to keep them too. He also desired for more righteousness; I feel like in a nutshell, he desired correction. He desired to know how he can do better, how he can improve, what he needs to fix. I think that is an essential trait that is key in Becoming, becoming like our Savior.

Humorous story: We are riding our bikes on this busy road. We stop at a stoplight. I hand an english class flyer to the guy on the scooter next to me. He has a question, but the light turns green. We head off. He pulls to the side of the road and calls me over. I gradually stop and look back. Here comes E. Schad, flying. He is busy looking at the scooter guy. Bam. He rams into my back tire...and falls. Then his pocket dumps. Pass-along cards, planner, pencil, phone all on the ground, in the dirt. We call this a greenie-drop. I helped him gather his stuff and answered the scooter guy's question. E. Schad was fine, just a sore knee from banging into his bike frame. Luckily we were on the side of the road so he didn't get run over or anything. ¨º.


Sam- get really thin ski socks. That's what I did and it really helped the feet. Have a good time and beware of Sasquatch.
Katie- send me a pic of your weird duck please.
Jeremy- Keep flexing on that Dental School stuff.
Mom- yes, open the box. the pants are for you guys (aka Christmas gifts).
Dad- Look at you procrastinating like a pro. I'm proud.

MUCH LOVE

Elder M. Riley Creer
The Only


#hashtags:
#thatawkwardmomentwhen: the power blows. Cold Showers and waffle-less breakfasts. #iloveThailand

Riley Pictures 12.24.12

Hey Family,

It was great talking to you! I probably should have told you I only had 30 to 40 minutes at the beginning. Sorry.

I hope these pictures make up for it.

Thanks for the presents!!! They rocked!

We went and talked to the mayor (ok, it was only the secretary mayor, but mayor is in his title so I'm counting it). We asked him what we could do to help the city. He said we could teach English at schools and then gave us his personal business card. 

  Yeah, we felt pretty cool.

 Nativity time!! WOOHOO.

 Little known fact: The 3rd wiseman was from the hoods of Vegas. Too much STANK on that face.

 

Our Thai Santa...YES.

 

We tried to make a pizza with peanut butter and jelly. We forgot it was in the toaster oven. aka it failed. Yikes.

Our solution: throw some yogurt on it. yeah buddy. 

It still tasted awful.

 Christmas Eve in Thailand...elephant included.

 CHRISTMAS!

 I kept the tradition of opening one of our gifts on Christmas Eve, don't even worry!

  It's a tie! YEAH.

Milk and Cookies for Santa...or us.

 The Loot. Made out like a bandit this year. 

 For real, just look at that sombrero.

 Reppin' my heritage.

 The Wrapping Paper Pile...Classic

When your family sends you snow for Christmas: 

THEY TOTALLY ROCK.

Riley Pictures 12.17.12

 

 the lanterns

the legend

Nongkhai 12.17.12

Hey Family!

What's up!

This week was fantastic. Truly Splendid. Loved it. Yep.

So transfer meeting is tomorrow. It got moved because of Christmas flights being more expensive or something. Anyway, we got the details this morning: E. Barfuss is moving. I'm getting a new companion...again. I'm praying he is Thai. But I still am yet to have a companion for more than 6 weeks. Maybe I am just too difficult to work with and all my companions request to move. Hopefully not.

Friday...Zone Conference. It was great. We met at the Central (giant mall) in Udorn...to go bowling. Yep. The whole zone along with Pres. Senior and his wife went bowling. It was a blast. The alley was playing Christmas music too! So sweet. Then we went to the church and had the training, which blew our minds (well my mind at least). President Senior changed the lessons key indicator. We used to count something as a lesson if we prayed and shared a piece of doctrine. Now it counts as a lesson if you leave them with a feeling of wonder. It totally changes the focus of the work. Missionaries used to get caught up in praying in order to count it as a lesson and focusing on numbers. Now the focus is not the number at all, but the feeling we leave with people. I guess our key indicators can sky rocket now, but the real point is that we leave people who we meet with feelings of "exquisite wonder." So sweet. After the training we lit off some lanterns as a zone and went to a crazy expensive buffet. We went hard in the paint there. My house of elders agreed to pause our 40 day fast since it was our Christmas dinner and all. Aka I went hard at the ice cream bar. Yeah buddy. #tastybusiness.
The dinner ended up taking pretty long so we didn't have time to catch a bus back to Nongkhai. After trying several hotels that were all full we ended up crashing at the Udorn elders' house...aka I slept on a tiny couch. Calling it sleep isn't quite accurate. I tried to sleep on a tiny couch. It was a rough night.

My favorite person in Nongkhai: I love Nongkhai. One reason I love it is because of the people. One person in particular is a champ. She is 4 and a half feet tall. She has an out of tune guitar that she can't play. And she can't talk. But she wears hoodrat sunglasses. She is the best. She doesn't know how to play but she strums her heart out. She does this little dance as she plays too. It is so funny. She inspires me, she is dirt poor, can't sing, can't play guitar, but she still has a good time rocking on the side of the street. Epitome of finding joy in what you have.


Well I love you all! Talk to you next week.

Elder M. Riley Creer
The Only



#hashtags:
That surprise moment when you have to give the Thai equivalent of a wedding toast...#Nuts.

Pictures 12.10.12

 Oh no...

 Oh yes...

 My burp after eating some extra spicy lunch.

His name is Lucky.

Nongkhai 12.10.12

Hey family!

This week was pretty good. Life is great over here in the far east (does Thailand count as the far east?).

Highlight of the week: A random Thai man gave me a hug. Yeah I think he was drunk. It was still a special moment.

So Thailand is still great. Don't worry. It is getting a little chilly at night these days. It is supreme. It feels so good riding home in almost-chilly temperatures instead of blazing heat. It's great.

Things I have been studying recently: asking questions and Mormon 7. I think asking questions is so critical in any teaching situation (whether it is Sunday School, lessons with investigators or the workshop at Home Depot on Saturday mornings). The right questions help people ponder about what you are teaching, they help people apply it to their lives. They invite the Spirit (even at the Home Depot). I think I don't ask enough questions, or sometimes when I ask questions they aren't the right questions. I have been trying to ask the right question at the right moment. It is hard. Preach My Gospel says you have to be in tune with the Spirit but also with your investigator. I am realizing how important it is to teach someone doctrine, not present doctrine to them. Mormon 7 is the favorite chapter of the week. It is recorded right after the Nephites are all destroyed. Mormon writes what he thinks the Lamanites need to know. He tells them who Christ is, why he came on earth and what we need to do to follow him. I love it. As I read about the destruction of the Lamanites I thought about how hard it would be to watch your civilization be destroyed. To know how they can be saved, try and help them do it and watch as they rejected their only salvation. Yikes.

For Poppa Smurf: One of our daters is named Pirome. He is the son of another member. He is 40ish. Then their is Dang and Mai, they are in their 40's too. Dang works in Laos and Mai is a stay at home mom. Mai was supposed to come to church...she didn't. Then we have Muay. She is great. She is 42 and has 2 daugthers. She bakes goodies. Saturday night we found another family, Meow and Ged. Ged is the mom (40's) and Meow is a 17 year old girl. They are really nice and always willing to meet. We'll pray that they will overcome the obstacles that lay ahead and get baptized.

Well this email kinda stinks. Sorry. Next week I'll repent and write more.

Much Love,

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

Pictures 12.3.12

 Soapbox: It almost worked. Way better attempt than last time. 

 It's all about the poster!

  It's all in the wrist.

 "Check me out mom!"

 

 Too much grace for the camera's focus to handle

Eating gourmet...on the floor...Thai-style

 yeah...it's a huge snake statue. sweet.

 The district. Yeah...we're sponsored

 The lanterns...yeah I thought there would be more too.

Candle boats? check. Fuzzy Buddhist temple in the background? check. Lots of black? check. That's what I call a quality shot...almost.

Nongkhai 12.3.12

Hey family!

This week was nuts.

P-day. We went to a crocodile farm. Then a giant statue garden. Yes. According to the handout they gave us at the entrance, the sculptor was half-animal and half-man. Classic. Whether he is 100% human or not, I don't know but his statues were big. Real big. We snapped some sweet pics, don't even worry.

The Tangled-Festival: After Disney released Tangled, Thailand went crazy. They loved it so much they decided to make a holiday for it and launch off lanterns like in the movie. They take their Disney movies very seriously here. Well anyway, the night of the festival came around and so did a fat rain cloud. #thathurtstheteam. So the armada of lanterns that was supposed to drift up to heaven turned out to be about 20 spread out all over the city. Yeah we were bummed. There were tons of water boat things though. That was pretty sweet. They make these floating candle boats out of bamboo (I think), leaves, flowers and other colorful things then float them down the river. There were a ton. It was sweet. The next day we sent up some lanterns of our own after dinner. If you minus my companion, the other elders, and the random Thai people in the background, and sub in my future wife...it was probably the most romantic thing I've ever done. Well there is always next year.

Highlight of the week: Sunday. We had a good day. Committed 3 people to be baptized in the end of December. Yeah buddy. We were feeling great and pumped to eat E. Tzanis' high class Sunday dinner. We had just pulled our bikes into our house when 3 cockroaches scurried under the door. Game on. E. Barfuss grabbed a broom/sweeper/scrubber thing and swept one right out the door. The other 2 were too fast. One took cover under the cabinet by the giant garage door. I smoked him out with the pest spray. Sweep. He's outta here. The last guy brought his A game. He had sneaked into a corner and was not going to leave. This is when it gets good. E. Barfuss is trying to sweep him towards the door when it runs right by his foot. He lets out this high pitched squeal. I'm thinking, "I've never heard my sister scream like that...was that for real?" Two seconds later when I heard it again I knew he was serious. This is when I bust out my camera and start capturing this encounter for posterity. E. Barfuss Vs. The cockroach. E. Barfuss' weapon of choice: a sweeper (for lack of a better word). The cockroach's weapon of choice: pure fear. Round 1: They face off in the corner. The cockroach charges. E. Barfuss tries the sweeper. It's not very effective! Fear overcomes him. He screams. Loud. And high. 1 point to the pest. Round 2: The cockroach dives under the laundry basket. E. Barfuss summons his bravery and tilts it up to settle this silly game. His courage crumbles. He screams. Loud. And long. 1 point to the roach. I'm dying with laughter. Final Round: E. Barfuss tries the sweeper again. It's super effective. He exclaims, "I think I killed it." He approaches warily. The cockroach lies still. Dead. Psych! It jumps up and scurries to the corner. E. Barfuss screams again. 2 points to the pest. He sweeps it towards the door finally and I follow up with the spray. Victory. Best video ever.

Well I love you all!

Elder M. Riley Creer
The Only

Riley pictures 11.26.12

 E. Schad rocking the knit sweater vest. He is just too classy.

 This is a soap bottle...that is promising me more happiness and fashion. I love Thailand.

 Feliz navidad! (with translation)

The Christmas decorations are up!

 Our journey to find Laos: P-day. We made a plan to go to the friendship bridge between Laos and Thailand. E. Tzanis and I were going to meet the other elders there after they dropped off their groceries. They decided to stay at home and sleep. So we went anyway. That's the bridge in the distance.

  We're So Far Away...from Laos (Subtle song quote). After a longer than expected bike ride we saw a crazy toll gate with growling guards (exaggeration? Yep.) and decided it wasn't worth it. So we stopped by this sign and captured the moment of our failed journey. Maybe next time we'll actually get on the bridge.

With our P-day coming to an end as the sun dropped below the horizon we decided to go fishing instead. We made a quick stop at a market to acquire a fishing pole, some hooks, and some pork sausage balls and found a nice spot on the river to drop our line. Apparently fish hate the pork sausage creations even more than we do because we didn't catch anything.

Nongkhai 11.26.12

Dear Family,

How is life? Your Boston trip sounds sweet. How is the Spanish branch Jeremy and Katie? I'm sorry you can't go skiing this break Sam, but have fun working! Where are you working these days? Mom and Dad, I love you.  Other Christmas ideas: Mormon Tabernacle choir CDs. Or a thumbdrive/ipod with Motab on it. We can only listen to Motab so don't sneak any Dubstep on there (unless Motab finally released a techno remix).

Surprise of the Week: Sunday. Sacrament meeting starts in 15 minutes. The 2nd counselor comes out to the foyer and asks me for some help. He then asks me to speak in Sacrament meeting. The speakers didn't come. He says 10 minutes...nuts. I say ok and start preparing. Luckily, 2 weeks ago we had to prepare a 2 minute talk for the mission tour. So I just lengthened that bad boy and was golden. Normally when I'm asked to speak I start freaking out. I get cold sweats, hot sweats, my tongues swells up, dizzy spells, and even cardiac arrest (name that movie). But this time I was really calm. Maybe because I'm already a white sheep in a field of black sheep so it doesn't matter what I do I already stick out. I ended up speaking for 15 minutes (reading in Thai eats time up like pacman and those ghosts) which is longer than I have ever spoken in English.

This week we are starting a Spiritual Fast. We are fasting for 40 days from the things that poke at our spirit, from our natural man tendencies that impede the Spirit. It should be great. We read a great talk in district meeting about it, it helped the missionaries who did it keep their eye single to the glory of God and as a result they were able to become true instruments in the hands of God and witness miracles. One thing I'm giving up is beatboxing. It will be tough but I think the Spirit will be able to influence us a little better if there isn't a bumping bass emanating from my mouth as we ride to our next appointment.

My favorite scripture of the week is Jeremiah 29:13. I found it while studying for this Spiritual Fast. It talks about how we find God when we search for Him with all our heart. When we search with all our heart, we are willing to give up good things, things that we love (aka beatboxing), for better things. Yep.

Well Life is still marvelous and I still love you all.

With love the size of a double big mac (yeah they have those here (I don't know how the little thai people can handle it though))

Elder M. Riley Creer
the only

Riley pictures 11.19.12

  A weird tree at a chinese temple...couldn't resist taking a picture. #Flexin.

 A chinese dragon going hard in the paint.

Action shot!

A recent convert's little boys. They are tyrants. But I'm way jealous of their sweet pants.

Nongkhai 11.19.12

Dear Family,

What's up?!

Questions: Sorry I didn't answer your question mom, I just need contacts. I can get solution here. As for turkey, probably not. I don't know if Thai people know what a turkey is...let alone eat them. Maybe we'll splurge and go to pizza company. Pepperoni is close to turkey right? The language is coming ok. I can understand most of what people say, unless they are speaking a lot of Isaan or just straight Lao then I'm done for. People seem to understand me too so that's pretty good. I'm definitely not pro, I still make mistakes when I speak or mess up some words. But for the most part, the language is going pretty well. 

This week was pretty good. We had a mission tour meeting in Udornthani, and then district conference right after. Elder Watson of the Seventy and Asia area presidency came. He is pretty funny. But I learned a lot about how important the Book of Mormon is in missionary work. I haven't been using it to the fullest in my teaching. The Book of Mormon isn't meant to be something we can use to spice up a lesson or as an optional side dish. The Book of Mormon has the fullness of the Restored Gospel, so it needs to be the main course of my teaching. They emphasized a sentence in Preach My Gospel that says the Book of Mormon with the Spirit is our greatest tool in conversion. If we read the Book of Mormon accompanied by the Spirit with Investigators, they will have to fight to stay out of the font. The Book of Mormon is marvelous.

Oh no moment: E. Barfuss got back from the mission tour meeting Saturday night. The investigator we had planned to meet wasn't free. Backup plan: Soapbox. We went to a market not far from our house with the intent of soapboxing. Looking back I realize we didn't think this plan all the way through...yikes. But we get there and scope the place out looking for a good spot to post up and preach the gospel. We couldn't find a good one. We decided we'd bring something along to stand on next time (aka a box) and just talk to the people by the scooter lineup. After talking to this cool cat, I turn around and see a pullcart. My mind instantly flashed back to the picture in PMG of Dan Jones standing on a too-similar-to-be-coincidence-looking cart preaching the gospel. Perfect. This was it. I told E. Barfuss to stand on one side so it didn't move as I stood on the other and valiantly proclaimed salvation. We mounted the cart. It started moving. A thai lady started yelling. Everyone else began staring. I got off. E. Barfuss regained his balance as the cart came to a rest. I handed him the Book of Mormon and told him to go for it. The thai lady is still yelling. He says, "We teach about..." The thai lady is still yelling to get off her cart. So he gets off and we peace out. In the end, we soapboxed 3 words. "We teach about!" Talk about a cliffhanger. I bet there are twenty people who have been wondering what it is that we teach about all weekend. They just have to wait until the next episode.

Well I love you all tons!! Life is good. Thailand is amazing.

Much Love

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

#Hashtags:

When your companion is holding a picture of President Faust and asks, "Who is this guy?" #thathurtstheteam

#NextPdayactivity: Make a paper airplane. Fly it to Laos.

Riley Pictures 11.12.12

  Three classy men sitting on a bench. Enough said.

 Some people see an old bed frame that will sit in the corner collecting dust. I see the perfect tie rack with even room for expansion. I see things differently. It's a blessing...and a curse #namethatsleuth

  The house.

The district. Oh by the way, that is Laos in the background. Lowkey awesome.